Novera fundraiser plugs into UK buzz

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Novera Energy is set to capitalise on its migration to Europe
with a $13 million equity raising on the London Stock Exchange's
Alternative Investment Market.

Novera expects to list on June 10, and will use the funds to pay
for its remaining 47 megawatt stake of wind power being developed
in Germany.

Novera took its business to Britain some years ago to escape the
tight market for renewable energy in Australia. It has expanded its
portfolio - through a joint venture with Macquarie Bank - from 37
MW of landfill gas in Britain to 138 MW of landfill gas, wind and
hydro power in Britain and on the Continent, in 12 months.

Novera chief executive Shane Gannon said the $13 million AIM
listing had been supported by 16 institutional and professional
investors in the British market, some with a particular interest in
renewable energy.

Moving into the British market put Novera in focus for an
investment market that was increasingly interested in renewables,
Mr Gannon said. The European Union has set a target of 22 per cent
of energy to be supplied by renewable sources by the end of the
decade.

Novera said yesterday that prices for renewable energy in
Britain and continental Europe were attractive and generally set by
long-term contracts.

Mr Gannon said Novera was not taking the cash-box approach to
renewables development where a company said "give us money and
we'll go out and buy something".

Novera earlier this year signed an option on 56 MW of wind power
being developed in Germany. But it is buying the projects only as
they become operational and earn money. Already Novera has taken
the first of the three German wind properties, a 9 MW wind
farm.

The next stage, 12 MW, is now undergoing due diligence. Mr
Gannon said that if all went according to plan, the
Novera-Macquarie joint venture would take control of the whole
German wind portfolio by the end of the year.

Novera could be seen as a mixed operation including both
defensive and growth characteristics, he said. The existing 139 MW
portfolio, which was fully operational and cash-flow positive, was
essentially a defensive infrastructure investment while the
pipeline of German wind farms and other possibilities in Europe
gave a growth element to the company's profile, Mr Gannon said.

He said if at some point the majority of its shareholders were
based in Britain, then the listing of Novera in Australia was
likely to be abandoned.

Novera has not issued a profit forecast for this financial year,
but Mr Gannon said the business was cash-flow positive.